Monday, May 25, 2009
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So I have had XM radio for almost 5 years. I pay for it a year at a time. Always on time. You would think that they would treat a customer like this well. Nope, not at XM. I sold my old Corvette to my father a couple of years ago when I got my new one. He transferred the XM service to his account, well little did I know that XM didn't take that radio off my account. So they have been double dipping. I called tonight because I know that my car is paid up. I got an email saying my service would be shut off if I didn't pay my balance. I talked to one girl saw that the '06 Corvette was on two accounts and removed that radio from my account and credited what was "due" back to my account. She then transferred me to another woman who was supposed to look stuff up and figure out the radios and credits. She did no such thing. She told me it is not possible for one radio to be on two accounts. Said I was never double charged. All this without looking at my father's account to see that the same radio was on there and paid through next year. What she did do was try and charge me another $84 through next May. I paid $77 through November 09 last November. She said I couldn't stay on my current plan because I only have one radio, so I needed to give them another $84. Mean while she was telling me full price for 1 year with one radio is $142 but she is trying to get another $84 which would take my out of pocket for one radio this year to $161. Not to mention the over charges for the other Vette, which according to her can't happen. So I was explaining my stance on not giving them another dollar till November and she transferred me to hold then another lady picked up. This poor woman gets me and I am really angry now. I kept it cool, but with a stern voice, not abusive to the person on the phone at all. So I am waiting for a manger to call me. 3 weeks ago when I was trying to solve this issue, a manager was supposed to call. Never happened. So I am waiting for them to just shut my radio off. I plan to write a letter to the FTC, FCC, my senators and representatives. This is why Sirius and XM should never have been allowed to merge. The new company doesn't care, they have the market and are screwing the customer every which way they can. Sirus/XM Radio is losing customers left and right, this is exactly why. Last quarter they LOST customers. They said it was because the auto industry has slowed. Guess what maybe it is the complete lack of customer service and accountability that the company is displaying. I guess they must need to pay Howard this month and need me to kick in a bunch of extra so they can keep him around or something. XM Radio owes me money and an appology for the monster run around. All this today and no resolution. Don't let them have your card to run as needed. They will run it over and over again. This doesn't even touch the changes of programming that happened where I lost my 3 favorite stations in favor of the crap Sirius version. I'll blog more about this later if they call me back or if my radio that IS PAID FOR THROUGH NOVEMBER gets turned off. Sirius/XM Radio customer service SUCKS!Labels: Cars and Racing, Entertainment, Personal, Politics, Technology
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Sunday, May 17, 2009
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Since I was a little kid I have always watched the Indy 500 and the month of May that leads up to the race. Over the years the month has shrunk and changes have been made that I didn't always agree with. My issue this year, they moved all the coverage to Versus. I missed pole day completely this year. You know if they had advertised that all the 500 coverage would be on Versus then maybe the guys that don't really care for Indy car racing anymore would know that they could watch 6+ hours a day of Indy 500 qualifying.
I think Tony George has once again dropped the ball but what else is new?
Labels: Cars and Racing, Entertainment
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Thursday, September 27, 2007
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As long as I can remember the sight of a Corvette, Ferrari or Lamborghini has always been an exciting experience for me. Growing up in rual Nebraska there weren’t a lot of exotic cars. I grew up with stories of my father’s ‘55 and ’57 Chevy’s. My uncle’s 56 Chevy. The stories of racing on Saturday nights with the cops blocking off the road so the kids had somewhere to do it safely. My grandfather always worked in a shop. Always was working on his car, little things, big things. I grew up going to see him at the shop he worked at and being totally amazed at the machines in the garage. I grew up with all the stories. That is where it all started for me. I knew I needed a fast car.
Anyway, I started reading car magazines. I would memorize the stats of each car. My best friend Pascal also loved cars and we would go back and forth about which car was the best. It was a lot of fun actually.
When I turned 16 I expected to have a ’67 Chevelle with a 350, but I ended up driving my mother’s ’88 Caviler. Not my idea of the car I should have had at that time. At 18 my parents bought me my first car and the only car they would buy me, thank god! I got an ’86 Red Camaro. Problem with this car is it only had a V-6 and wasn’t much faster than my mother’s Caviler. My father wouldn’t let me have anything faster and being the kid I was I didn’t fight him much. Good thing, I promptly wrecked it. I was chasing one of my buddies around a left hand corner and started to spin into traffic going the other way, I over corrected and spun the other way onto the sidewalk and drilled an adopt a mile sign with the left front quarter panel. I went home and told my dad thinking I was dead. Just made sure I was ok and we got the car fixed. I did a number on that car though. Flattened 3 out of four tires bent the frame plus some descent body damage.
I drove that car for a long time. I got it in 93 and drove it till 2001. My next car I had a total of a month and a half. I got a raise at my first real job. Enough I could afford a new car, so I went down and bought a brand new 2001 Camaro. I got it fully loaded, but again it had a V-6. Well I was driving to work one morning and went under a bridge. Right where it went from light to dark there was something lying in the road. I swerved to miss it and then swerved back to get off at my exit. Well when I swerved back the rear end slid out and I hit the side of the tunnel head on at about 70 MPH. It shortened the car up about 2 feet. Flipped it back into traffic, bent the hood up high enough you couldn’t see over it from inside the car and when the air bags went off it blew the windshield out of the frame. The cop that showed up told me to drive it up off the freeway. I told him to look at the car, I didn’t think it would run. But to my surprise it did. I popped the T-Top up sat on the back of the driver’s seat and drove it off the freeway. I walked away with no injuries.
While they were trying to decide if they were going to total the car or not, I was driving my parents brand new Trailblazer to work and rear ended another car. It was a bad month for my driving.
Well the insurance company finally decided to total my Camaro and I got a check and went down to buy my next new car. This time I got a 2001 Z28 Camaro. My dad was so upset, he thought I wreck the other one because I couldn’t handle the power. I told people I got a Z28 because I didn’t hit the wall hard enough. I drove that car for 5 years. Got rear ended in it twice, but luckily I never hit anything in it.
After all of those Camaro’s I didn’t know what my next car would be. GM stopped making Camaro’s so that was out of the question. I got a big raise at work and decided I needed something nicer.
I sat at my favorite hangout one night with a few of my friends and talked about what I wanted for a car. Everything from a Lotus Elise, BMW M3 and many, many other cars. I mentioned I always wanted a Corvette and the C6 Corvette Z06 just came out. I got a ton of shit from the girls. I went to work the next day and started making calls. Dealers wanted $150,000 for the car. I couldn’t do that. I went to a dealer that I had done some work for and they made me a deal that looking back on it was kind of a bad deal but I made it work.
The deal was that I would buy a 2006 Corvette Coupe. I could order it however I wanted. Doing so they would jump me to first on the list for a 2007 Z06 Corvette, I said ok. I got my Corvette Coupe in November 2005. I was scared to death of that car. It was a 6 speed. I didn’t know how to drive stick, my cousin Josh taught me to drive it in the parking lot of our office. Nice car to learn to drive stick in. I left it at work 2 nights then I finally got the balls to drive it home. That was the last time I left that car anywhere except the dealership.
I feel in love with that car as soon as I drove it. I took it with my cousin Josh out of the parking lot and hammered the foot feed as we came out. The car just stuck and launched like a rocket. My cousin Josh said he had never seen a bigger smile on my face.
Well I learned to drive the car well enough to run the tires off the car. The worst thing GM could have done to that car for me was put a G meter in the heads up display. The G meter tells you how many time the force of gravity you are pulling as you corner. I got it up to .9 G’s. It was the most fun I have ever had in a car.
I took it to my parents house to show my Dad. He has always wanted a Corvette. We stood in the drive way forever and messed with the car. He was actually pretty proud of me. I was pretty proud of myself as well.
7 months later the dealership called and said it was time to order my Z06. I was freaking out. This is where they tried to screw me. How many people could afford to buy a new car less than a year after buying a new car? I was upside down in my Coupe as pretty much anybody would be unless you paid cash, which I didn’t. I had a plan though.
So I went down to the dealership and loaded my Z06 out. I went to my parent’s house and my Dad and I made a deal that when my new Corvette showed he would take my “old” Corvette. Well my new Corvette showed up quick!
About a month and a half later I drove down to the dealership late one night and checked it out. It still had all the stuff on it from transport. My new Z06 was the most beautiful car I had ever seen. I did all the paper work that night, put down every cent I had on it and came back the next day and picked it up.
If I was scared of my Coupe, this one was terrifying. More than 100 Hp more, but I got it back to the office nicely, stood in the parking lot taking pictures of my two Corvettes side by side, I should say both cars are bright yellow. I must have stood there for over an hour. I had to eventually go back inside and get some work done. But shortly the rides started. Pretty much everybody in the office.
I took the Coupe up to my Dad that weekend after spending 3 hours detailing it for him. I am not sure I have seen him quite so happy with a car. He buys more stuff for that car. It is really nice to see him happy with something like that.
Well the Z06 is the latest car I have bought. I can’t imagine driving anything else. Lost only one race in it, it is ok, the car the beat me cost 5 times what my Z06 did.
I don’t know, but I have always loved cars. The ability to have a machine that can go so fast, change direction in an instant. I love it.
Don’t know why I love it so much, I think it is in my genes, but I do.Labels: Cars and Racing
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Friday, May 18, 2007
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Ok, so the American people are getting screwed by the gas companies and our government. Prices are way up because the gas companies are scared that there will be a shortage. Which is looking like it won't happen. Also prices are up because the oil companies have been raking in profits and not re-investing in their equipment. They let thing go till they break then it cost the American people because the oil companies have to jump into crisis mode and fix shit.
We need more refineries and actually need to get some new E-85 and E-100 refineries and cars.
I was watching a show on the history chanel and they were saying that Coors Brewing produces the most ethanol of any company in the US. I don't know where all of that is going, but it definately isn't going into our cars. They also had a stat about the number of E-85 stations in Chicago which was something like 85 and 0 in LA. Funny how that works. Where are gas prices highest in the US, oh yeah LA, why put and E-85 in LA where the oil companies are just raking it in?
Why is our government letting these companies kill the US economy? All it would take is a little matanience on the oil companies part to keep prices down a ton, and build 2 new refineries and all the sudden, guess what, the price of gas is below $2 again. All the refineries which are running at 89% right now according to reports I have read, the government is saying they should be running at 95%, but why when the oil companies can run the price up? But 2 new refineries and the current ones don't have to run as high and if there is an issue it won't effect supply nearly as much.
I personally am tired of being railroaded by the oil companies and our government doing nothing about it. At some point the people of this nation has to be a higher priority than big business making big money.
The new goal since oil is getting to expensive, get the American public hooked on ethanol. That way the oil companies can keep stealing form people.
E-85 would be good for America though. Farmers would be back to making money, not that they don't now. Goverment subsidies to farmers should be lower because there is no reason to leave a field bare to keep prices up, so our tax dollars won't be needed there.
Oil and the oil companies are bad for the American people as they are currently run. In the US it is supposed to be illegal to run a cartel or to price fix. Isn't that what the oil companies are doing?
I don't know, but personally I am fed up with it all. Labels: Cars and Racing
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The Bull Run Season 1 (I am sure) final was Tuesday. It was kind of anti-climatic I thought. Since I haven't posted in a couple of weeks I thought I would give you my opinion on the last few shows.
First off it was great to see Team Lotus pull such a bitch move by sand bagging and get screw in doing it. That is what you get.
In the second to last show it sucked to see Team Charger get knocked out. It had to suck to get knocked out by such a little issue in the challenge.
The final show was so such a dissappointment I thought. All the other shows were atleast interesting and the past 3 had been pretty good. But the last one with Team Olds stopping to get their brakes fixed and being two hours down, then beating Team F150 which didn't really break my heart, you knew Team F150 was done no matter what. They tried to build some drama by showing F150 taking a short cut, but 2+ hours is hard to make up on one run.
Team Trans-Am was a lock once F150 got beat in the challenge. Actually I thought Olds might win, which would have pissed me off a bit, but in the end the Team that was the mose consistant won. Would have been nice to see Team Challenger in there althought with their gas mileage I don't think they woud have ever had a chance.
Overall I enjoyed the show, think they need to change it up a little. I think longer legs where teams have more chance to make up time and challenges that aren't as destructive. Make it more competative between the top teams and get rid of the weak teams quicker. It would have been interesting to see the final 3 go for two shows with their times building. So four legs and two challenges. That would have made for better drama in this case.
But fun none the less. Labels: Cars and Racing
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007
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I don't know what it is about this show, but it kind of has me hooked. It is on with a new episode tonight.
I was watching the re-run of last weeks episode this weekend and I am pretty much going for Team Charger to win it all. They aren't looking so good right now, but I think they can pull it out.
Their biggest issue seems to be gas mileage. If I were them I would de-tune the care a bit and see if they can pull a little better mileage. Not like they really need all of that power on the road. If they can get to the first check point early maybe they can re-adjust it all for the challenge.
I like them mainly because they aren't pulling any bullshit. They are running their race. Labels: Cars and Racing
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Tuesday, April 17, 2007
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I have been watching Bull Run on SpikeTV. It is pretty entertaining. I would never do it. I feel sorry for these guys beating the hell out of their cars. Not sure how Goldberg can let these guys do this to their cars. I know what a car guy he is.
The best and worst thing to happen was to the Lamborghini team. That guy was a total ass. But he got what he deserved. Almost right away his clutch starts slipping then he clips a raccoon at 80 mph square in the front of the car. Totally messed the car up. All he talked about was money the whole time. This is going to cost this and that. The country club this or that. He got what he deserved
The biggest bitch move to this point? When team F-150 video taped team Honda and team Lotus speeding. The best part of the whole thing was when one of the guys from Team F-150 was talking to Goldberg and you could tell he was physically scared and shaken from the confrontation with team Lotus and team Honda.
Dumbest thing I have ever seen on TV? When team F-150 drives their truck through a cinder block wall. That isn't the dumbest thing. The dumbest thing is when they get upset when they look at the front of their now busted up truck. What the hell did they think would happen? Just stupid. Like they were going to out run a Lotus anyway.
I know this has all been taped and is already over, but I don't know how it ends. I am hoping for team Trans-Am or team Charger.
It is actually a pretty decent show.Labels: Cars and Racing
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Sunday, September 10, 2006
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Last year (November 2006) I bought a 2006 Corvette Z51. It is a great car. By far the best car I have ever owned. I have heard the knocks on past Corvettes and all the good things that people have had to say about the new ones. The C6 Corvette is a huge step forward for Chevrolet and GM.
Before I bought my ’06 Corvette I owned and still own a 2001 Z28 Camaro. I thought that was such a great car when I bought it. The difference between the Camaro and the Corvette is so huge if you didn’t know better you would swear that they were built by two completely different companies.
Back to the Corvette. So this is the story of how I bought my Corvettes. In 2006 I wanted to buy a C6 Z06. I called around and found that all but one dealership here in Arizona was selling the 2006 Z06 for well over sticker some as much as $80,000 over sticker. I called the one dealership that was selling them for sticker and asked how I could get on their waiting list. They told me that they could add me, but the wait was about 3 years based on current allocation. I asked, since I have bought a few cars from the dealership and my company had done some business for them, if there was anyway to move up on the list. They called me back a few days later and said if I bought a 2006 C6 I could have the first 2007 Z06. I thought about it and said OK.
I guess they had offered this option to others and no one took them up on it because it would be almost impossible to get rid of a year old Corvette for what you would owe on it or you would take a huge loss if you paid cash. I had a plan. So I went down and custom ordered my ’06. It is a beautiful car.
So it came around to June 2006 and the dealership called to tell me to come down and order my Z06. I went down ordered and ordered the car the way I wanted it. I also asked if I could push the delivery date back a month or two to help facilitate getting rid of the ’06. They told me no and if I wanted this car, I would have to take it when it got here. I said OK.
As I understand it from the sales person, the owners didn’t expect anybody to take them up on the offer and a few sales guys at the dealership had people waiting in the wings to take the car when I didn’t buy it.
It took about 3 months for the car to come in. When it did, I went down and checked it out. I fell in love with it immediately. Filled out the paper work and drove it home the next day. I got the car for window sticker minus the $3,500+ price increase that GM added to the Z06 after I placed my order.
Oh, how did I get rid of the ’06? Well my father has always wanted a Corvette. I knew when I was placing the order that my Dad would take the car when my Z06 came in. He did and hasn’t driven his Volvo since.
To compare the Z06 to the Z51, well the interior is all that is the same. The car is so much faster. It is a little rougher ride, but not to bad. The only thing I miss from the Z51 is the removable top. But with 505 hp and 470 foot pounds of torque, I will do without the top. I am still getting used to the power and breaking the car in. It showed up with 3 miles on the odometer.
This is arguably the best American made sports car ever. I didn’t think I could have more fun driving a car than I did driving the Z51, I was wrong the Z06 is a ton of fun. If you can find for a reasonable price I would tell you to buy it and have a blast.Labels: Cars and Racing
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Well today Michael Schumacher retired as arguable the best formula one driver ever. It is like the end of an era, I've seen all my favorite sports personalities retire, first Elway then Osbourne and now Schumacher.
There is a lot of things being said about about Michael. He did what all that strive to be and do become successful, do. He did all it took to win. Sometimes he went over the line, and in the real world that is sometimes what it takes to be the best. Look at sports figures, Jordan for example, ever heard of the Jordan rules? People may say that Michael Schumacher went to far at times, but that happens when you are pushing the envelope. Was Michael right all the time? Not at all. It is just that most people don't make such descisions and don't make them in as public an arena.
If more people on this planet had the drive that Michael has and the focus that he can muster, it would be a far better place. That is what makes him so special.
I am a fan of his and I know many others dislike him. But no matter your feelings you can't argue with his numbers.
Michael did something that no one else in Formula One has or probably ever will. He won and won and won. Formula One will lose one of it greatest champions in as little as 3 races. His true brilliance will on be realize when he is gone.Labels: Cars and Racing
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